President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday inaugurated a medium-sized refinery in Ibigwe, Imo State.

The Ibigwe refinery will process 5,000 barrels a day, the president said on his Twitter account.

The president launched the refinery online and said work would begin on expanding the plant to produce 50,000 barrels a day.

Nigeria is one of the world’s largest oil producers, but crude oil is exported and refined due to damage to the country’s refineries.

Meanwhile, Nigeria has reached a consensus with the Niger Republic to import petroleum product from the country.

Niger Republic’s Soraz Refinery in Zinder, some 260km from the Nigerian border, has an installed refining capacity of 20,000 barrels per day.

Niger’s total domestic requirement is about 5,000bpd, thus leaving a huge surplus of about 15,000 BPD, mostly for export.

The announcement was met with widespread criticisms with many knocking the government over its inability to keep the country’s refineries running.

Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, however, said the importation of fuel from the Niger Republic is not something Nigerians should be embarrassed about.